GAME REPORT

Ekaterinburg Step Closer To Advancing

Lance Harris's 21 points paced four players in double figures as Ural Ekaterinburg picked up a crucial home victory in Group F of the EuroChallenge, beating KRKA Novo Mesto 79-68.

Aaron McGhee added 18 points, Dmitry Flis had 13 and Anton Glazunov chipped in 10 points, seven assists and five rebounds for Ekaterinburg, who improved to 3-1 in the group.

Matej Rojc led Novo Mesto with 11 points while three others had 10 points as the Slovenians dropped to 2-2 in the group.

The game was tight in the first quarter until the hosts used a 10-0 run to finish the period with a 27-20 lead. Ekaterinburg scored the first five points of the second quarter to push the run to 15-0.

After Novo Mesto trimmed the deficit to eight points, the hosts built their biggest lead of the game, 47-31. The score was 47-34 at intermission.

Novo Mesto went on an 8-0 run to start the second half and got the margin down to 52-49 before Ekaterinburg answered with a 10-0 surge and were up 66-53 after three quarters.

Novo Mesto pulled the deficit to 74-68 with 2:10 remaining but Ekaterinburg did not allow another point the rest of the way.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes: Ural Ekaterinburg vs. Krka Novo Mesto

Krka Novo Mesto Head Coach Aleksandar Dzikic"We were not expecting this kind of game. They played tough. We made some mistakes in the first half and they scored 47 points on us. In some moments we were not smart enough.

"The way this team plays was not a surprise for us. I will say something that I think is a great compliment for my colleague. This team is one of the most disciplined teams in Russia that I have ever faced, which I believe is needed for success. They have two Americans, but they do play as Russians, it looks like they don't have division inside the team. And the Russians are fighting, playing defence - they are playing together.

"Our flight was delayed for two hours and 45 minutes, and it was funny to arrive at five in the morning instead of 2pm. We have never before played in cities, which have more than five hours' time difference.

"As for the game organisation, it was a nice show."

Krka Novo Mesto Player Luka Lapornik"We started the game very well but then we stopped playing defence. We let them make so many open shots, they are great shooters. In the second half - the same story. We started so good, but stopped playing defence."

URAL Ekaterinburg Head Coach Oleg Okulov"To start with, it's a pleasant feeling - to win a match against such a team. This is an experienced team, which plays hard matches in the Adriatic League, and which is used to European basketball. They have a balanced composition, and I think the hard road influenced the play of KRKA. Our team worked well during the game and were doing what was really needed, were good in defence and rebounds."We had many difficult moments, because some of the KRKA players were part of the team, when they won the cup in 2011, but rotation of players helped us and didn't let KRKA fill the gap."

URAL Ekaterinburg Player Dmitriy Flis"It was a good game, we played good defence till the last ten, but then we let them score. We played as a united team, and led the game from the very beginning. Certainly, we were nervous, but on the court we put the strength together.